Hello everyone!
Thank you for reading the following blog post! I'm Kota Suzuki from Japan. I've been practicing kendo since I was seven years old in Japan－I am currently 3rd Dan. Right now, I am studying abroad in the United States and regularly practice at the university kendo club here.
Today's topic: Degote. Degote is one of the kote techniques that you hit kote when an opponent hit men. This is one of the common oji-waza which means defensive techniques, so many people want to master degote. However, many of them have difficulty in doing degote because this technique is not easy. Today, I'm going to give you three useful advices that make degote easier.
1. Let an opponent hit men
First, it is important to let an opponent hit men, meanig you should not wait for an opponent hitting men. It is a general idea of every defensive techniques that you should try to control an opponent. Many people wait for an oppnent's attacks, but you will be late at the time to hit correctly.
Basically, you move forward a bit to let an opponent hit men because the opponent think this is a chance to hit men, but it is actually fake. You should not get too close to the opponent since it will be difficult to hit kote in the close distance. Make sure you have enough space to hit kote correctly.
2. Hit kote in the compact way
Second, hitting kote in the compact way is important for better degote. As you know, an opponent step forward while hitting men, so you are able to reach kote enough even if your step is smaller than the usual way. Many people who cannot strike degote correctly tend to step forward too much, causing the difficulty in hitting at the correct distance.
In addition, your swing should be compact as well. If you swing a shinai largely as usual, it is going to be too close to strike kote correctly. You still need to hit strongly enough for getting a point, but it is important to target degote in the compact way.
3. Don't stop after hitting
You can miss hitting degote in practice at first, but you cannot do that in actual matches because you will give an opponent a chance after you miss. To avoid getting hit, you should go close to the opponent fast after you hit kote. If you come close to the opponent immidiately, you will be able to avoid getting hit even if you miss degote.
Kote is the closest hitting part to you, so it is easy to hit kote. However, kote is a weak waza (technique) compared to men because men is a very fast and powerful waza. Therefore, once you miss degote when the opponent hit men, it is going to be a risky situation, so please be careful especially after hitting kote.
If you want to learn more about degote, you can watch a video of degote techniques on my YouTube channel. I’ve added English subtitles on the video, so I hope you can enjoy watching it!
Thank you for reading this blog post! Degote is one of the useful techniques in kendo matces, so practice many times and use degote if you have a chance. If you have any questions, please ask me.
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